


You Politely Ask to Take a Walk with Me

by Point_of_no_return



Series: Eight Days A Week [3]
Category: Schitt's Creek
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Episode Fix-it, First I Love You Moments, I Love You, Light Angst, M/M, Right after the barbecue, everything is okay, hand holding, season 4, the BBQ episode
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-12
Updated: 2019-09-12
Packaged: 2020-10-14 23:23:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20609048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Point_of_no_return/pseuds/Point_of_no_return
Summary: "I think I just need to be alone right now."Patrick sighs with a defeated and emotionally raw, “okay” and leaves. He returns a few minutes later with a plate of food, opens the door to place it just inside the door at the table. David calls out to him, softly, but loud enough he knows Patrick will hear, "Wait. Come in."David's eyes are puffy and red rimmed as he takes the food from Patrick. He sets it on the side, staring at the sliders willing himself to say anything.Patrick is waiting for...whatever. His soul bared as open and vulnerable as his body stature.





	You Politely Ask to Take a Walk with Me

**Author's Note:**

> Title taken from one of my favorite Mary Lambert songs, “When you sleep.”  
It’s a beautiful song and I recommend it to everyone.
> 
> Again, thank you to my beta half, Simplytheschittiest . Love you, boo.

** **

"Cause no matter how hard I tried with her, it just never felt right. And up until recently, I didn't understand why. David, I've spent most of my life not knowing what right was supposed to feel like, and then I met _ you. _ ..and everything changed.  
_ You _ make me feel right, David.”

  
“That is quite possibly one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever heard anyone say. Um...outside of the Downton Christmas Special.”  
  
Unwavering, Patrick continues, “It’s the truth and it goes beyond any feelings you could have for a....a TV show.”

  
David wants to argue, but the topic is too trivial for a conversation as this. Patrick pushes on.   
  


“This is about you and me, David. You make me feel--”

  
_What do I do? What do I say? Take a step back, Brewer._  
  
  
“How can I make this right? How can I show you what we have is real and that I’m not going anywhere?”  
  
“What I’m having a hard time with, Patrick, is that you never told me about you-your fiancée - and the one time I tried to ask you about your dating history, you shut it down like it wasn’t a big deal.”

Patrick, completely downtrodden, croaks out, barely above a whisper, “Well, it wasn’t a big deal. I thought she was out of the picture, and I could move on with my life. With you. That’s all I wanted.”  
  
David shakes his head, asking himself why he can’t click his heels three times and transport himself back to the beginning of the day with soft cookies and a warm boyfriend. But there isn’t a Great Oz to take him back to Kansas. He is stuck in the forest with winged monkeys and furious apple throwing trees.  
  
“David, I never meant to hurt you. I didn’t mean to omit this part of my life from you. I wasn’t trying to hide anything. Like I said, I didn’t want it to affect what we have.” By this point, there are tears streaming down Patrick’s face and his eyes are pleading. 

David retorts. “It’s just that my truth is that I am damaged goods and this has really messed things up for me. And I think I need some time with it.”

“All right.” Patrick turns around to approach the door. He turns to face David as tears start to form in his eyes.  
  
“David, what does this mean? Does it mean we- we’re-” He can’t even say the words. 

“I don’t know what it means. I haven’t made up my mind about it yet.” David sighs, looking up uncomfortably.

Patrick sits down on the edge of the bed again, face in his hands. “David, I don’t want to lose you. I feel like I already have…” _ Pull yourself together, Brewer. He just needs space.  
  
_

_ Where is my heart. Fuck. How can he not know how I feel? How I have always felt since I have known him. It’s been four months, but this feels real. Like I have known him my entire life, like he has been a part of me this whole time. If he leaves, a part of me leaves. My heart is his. _  
_  
_Patrick gets up, emotional boundaries be damned. He grabs David’s face, cupping his jaw with every feeling inside of him and pulls David into a searing kiss before he whispers with a sob, “I love you, David. ” He just realized. Oh god. What have I said. Oh, you idiot. What have you done now? This isn’t the right time. It can’t be and now you look desperate. 

** **

But that’s exactly what Patrick is feeling, absolute desperation. Desperate to hold David and cradle him in his arms and tell the monsters to go away, and then it hits him. _ I’m one of the monsters. _ It is almost too much for Patrick to think and he knows proclaiming this truth is reckless. _  
_

David stands stunned, hands clasped behind his own neck, looking at Patrick who has just said the one thing that could transport David to another time. Patrick knows it. Those three words.

_ Fuck it. _

“I do. I feel— loved, really loved for the first time and I think it is because I love you so much." Patrick says steadily. Calmly. “I’m not afraid to tell you, David. Ever since I first met you, I knew you were special. I meant what I said, all of those feelings you’re supposed to feel, I felt them.” Patrick swipes a few tears away.

David exhales and shakes his head, "I don't know what you want me to do with this. Do you think by telling me that it will make me...I don't know...not forget that you have a fiancée? To forget that you _ lied _ ?"  
  
" _ Had _ a fiancée, David, there is a difference! And no, I don't know why I am telling you this. It isn't out of desperation, not really anyway. I honestly do feel this way and I have for a while now.”

** **

David scoffs sadly. Patrick can see it written all over his face he is asking the universe _ why now, why would he say this now _ and Patrick doesn’t have an answer. 

“David?” Patrick questions softly. “What makes you think I lied? I just didn’t say-“

“Omission _ is _lying. Plain and simple.”

Patrick flops to the bed, seated. His hands clasping at his head and burying his face hoping that by some chance a great idea might surface. It doesn’t come. 

David waves his left hand like he is trying to wave all of it away. “Well anyway, I can't hear this right now. It's too much.” Patrick lets two more tears fall. _ Oh. What have you done, Brewer. _

Patrick picks himself up. "I'm sorry, David. I don't know what I was thinking. You have every right to be upset. We never set it as a boundary to be open and talk about our past relationships. I thought I was...well I... I meant to protect you and what we have. This was my mistake." 

"I think I just need to be alone right now." 

Patrick sighs with a defeated and emotionally raw, “okay” and leaves. He returns a few minutes later with a plate of food, opens the door to place it just inside the door at the table.

David calls out to him, softly, but loud enough he knows Patrick will hear, "Wait. Come in."

David's eyes are puffy and red rimmed as he takes the food from Patrick. He sets it on the side, staring at the sliders willing himself to say anything. 

Patrick is waiting for...whatever. His soul bared as open and vulnerable as his body stature.

By some miracle, David hasn’t sent Patrick away, _ yet. _David still can’t look him in the eye, but he approaches Patrick slowly and with timidation. He wraps his arms around his boyfriend’s shoulders and Patrick places one hand to David’s upper arm, not daring to touch his hips as he normally does.

In one tight hug, because that’s all he can do at the moment, he sighs into Patrick’s neck, breathing him in. Patrick can’t help but to wrap his arms around David’s waist and do the same. 

"I can't say it back yet. But...I don't want to let you go." David’s voice cracked. 

_ Does he mean now? Forever? _

Patrick squeezes tighter around David feeling relieved and still ..._ still _he doesn’t know what this means for them. Patrick is not upset about being touched though.

"I don't want the first time I say it to be because a girl came in and ruined our four month...whatever." 

Patrick smiles a little and David feels it against his cheek. They sway like they’re dancing, but there is no music and the dance is a somber, sorrowful piece. 

Continuing to whisper, “I'm so glad you said it to me now. I didn't think I would be okay with it, but I- I think I needed to hear it. Even if it’s just once.”

"Well it's the truth. At least you now know something true. And I won’t say it just one time. I’ll say it over and over. Because I _mean it,_ David." Patrick winces as he speaks and he can’t believe he can be so raw before David. 

Some time passes and the two are still in an embrace. Patrick and is trembling inside, desperate not to show it, knowing he needs to break the silence.

“David? You choose. I’ll be here. I can stay, but if you need to be alone, I can give you time. Uhm, whatever you need.” Patrick also knows he needs to explain everything to Rachel, but that’s for another day. Right now all that matters is the love of his life, his David Rose. Just experiencing that one singular thought ‘_ love of his life’ _springs new vitality to Patrick’s body. 

Feelings of overwhelming confliction are the understatement of the hour for David. It doesn’t help his arms are still surrounding the shoulders of the man he simultaneously desires and wants to cry ugly tears over. 

“David?” Patrick tries to say softly, gently, and with understanding. 

Pulled out of his trance, he clears his throat, ready to respond to Patrick. "There is one thing. Something I think we have been lacking in our...relationship... is communication." 

"I agree.” They have certainly failed to communicate on more than one occasion.

"I know that there is a part of me that just wants to send you away, but then we are still not... connecting and I don't want that." David is trying whatever he can to keep it together. 

"Okay David. So, would you like for me to stay and we can talk?" He delivers a few calming strokes to David’s back muscles. 

"I don't want to be here right now. Can I eat and then we go back to your apartment? Or just, I don’t know, maybe take a walk? 

“Sure David,” Patrick gives a slight smile, “I’ll take a walk with you.”

There has been enough time in the evening that the pair can slip away from the motel unseen. 

So much uncertainty in the moment, Patrick refrains from holding David’s hand, but as they walk, in silence, he keeps glancing down at David’s hand, especially the fingers he longs to play with. Patrick sees every once in a while, that anxious way David rubs his hands together, an emotional defense mechanism he has seen David use before. All he wants to do is still those fingers and thread his own into them. 

Patrick would wait five eternities for David to speak if he had to, the walk in silence is therapeutic and perfect. Luckily, he doesn’t have to wait that long. 

"What you said earlier...that I make you feel...uhm...'right'? That meant a lot to me and I know you meant it."

“Every word.”

“_No, _ Patrick. _ No one _has ever said anything like that to me.” David sniffles and looks down at the ground. 

Yearning to touch David’s arm as David rubs his own hand up and down his opposite arm trying to soothe himself, Patrick reaches out to David, but then at the last second, pulls his arms back and tucks his hands back into his pockets, deep as they can go. 

The men continue on their walk, passing under the towering old oak trees. Patrick takes in the scene. There’s a small pond to the right, something Patrick hadn’t noticed in Schitt’s Creek, or maybe he needed to have someone as beautiful as David Rose in his life, to take a walk with, to see breathtaking surroundings in an environment no one had deemed worthy. 

Patrick stops them both on the path and places a gentle hand to David's shoulder. "David, I want you to understand something. Maybe I haven't made it clear. I want you and only you. I am so sorry that I didn't tell you about Rachel and I am so sorry that she ruined our day today. I don't know if I have even asked, but can you please forgive me?"

David, his head bowed, looking at the ground nods and says without looking at Patrick, but looking at his shoes. "I want to." 

Patrick releases the breath he’s been holding in, constricting his chest. He takes David’s face so delicately into his palms and looks into his tearful eyes to whisper, "Please, David, I mean it when I say I’m so sorry. Can you really forgive me? Sweetheart, I-."

"Yeah. Patrick, I can do that." 

“David,” Patrick whispers. 

He looks up to Patrick, finally to his eyes and says "I can forgive you. It may take some time, but I really want to forgive you.”

“For the sake of being honest,” he continues, “it isn’t fair for me to know about your past and you not know about mine. I usually don’t tell anyone my past because, typically, when anyone gets to know me, the less they want to be with me.”

At this point, Patrick takes David’s hand to say, “I’m not just anyone, David.” Patrick is so relieved to be able to say his name, it’s like an answer to prayer. _David David David. _ “I run a business with you and we share our lives together. I talk to you every day, I hear all of your stories, and I’m still here.”

“No, Patrick, this is different. This isn’t about how the vendor left the cheese on the front door overnight and it spoiled, this is about my dating history. Things I’ve never told you. You may not even want me after I tell you. You don’t know the real me.” David chokes out the last sentence and stares at the ground. Patrick moves into more of David’s space. 

“David, you don’t have to say anything that makes you uncomfortable. Sweetheart, I’ll be here to listen and I promise there’s nothing you could say to make me want to leave you. I’m not going anywhere.” Patrick then kisses David’s palm and uses David’s hand to cup his cheek. David delicately cradles Patrick’s cheek and jaw. “See? I’m right here.” Patrick repeats. 

So for the next 45 minutes, they find a bench close to the pond where David then tells Patrick about his past suitors and all of the sad, sorted events that led him from bed to bed and to be used over and over. Despite everything, Patrick keeps up with him and rubs his thumb sweetly over David’s knuckles. 

“David, what you said just now was very brave and just as I thought, there was nothing that you told me that would make me leave. Not one thing.”

Patrick squeezes his hand and pulls David into him, clasps his hands together with David's and now he is holding both hands as they lean in on the bench with their foreheads together, eyes closed. Breathing each other in under the giant oak trees. David is safe. Patrick heard everything and not once looked like he would leave, because he never would. He was all in with this beautiful man. 

"Thank you, David. Thank you for sharing this with me and for letting me stay with you.”

“Yeah, yes. Stay, Patrick. Please don’t leave.”  
  


Patrick takes their clasped hands and brings each to his lips and kisses each of David's hands and then even more feather light kisses to his fingers. 

Keeping their hands interlocked at his chest, David can feel the steady rise and fall of Patrick’s chest. Patrick let’s out a deep exhale and pulls back to look at David and that is when David opens his eyes, and for the second time looks directly into the honey brown warmth of Patrick’s. 

David sees all of the affection and passion in his boyfriend’s face, how soft he is, and this time he isn’t scared of the feeling. He knows it’s right. 

"It's okay. You can say it."

"I love you, David." 

David takes a small sigh. "I love you too" he whispers back. 

Patrick looks back at him kind of incredulous.

They both have tears in their eyes and David adds, "I think I also love going on walks with you."

Patrick kisses his left cheek and whispers softly into his ear, "Me too."

Needing more than that, David uses one of his hands to nudge Patrick back into him and David kisses Patrick so so sweetly on his cupid’s bow. 

Patrick wraps their interlocked hands around David’s body and hears the contented sigh David gives into their more passionate kiss.

The pair walk with interwoven hands back to the motel where Patrick will leave him for the night, but he will always wonder what could have happened if he didn't prepare the plate of food for David. 

Would they have talked it out later on the phone? Or maybe in person at the store? Would Patrick have had to send a bunch of olive branches to David to win back his heart?

But there was no need to think about that because they _ had _ worked it out on that Thursday and discovered that anytime they needed to have an important discussion, heated or not, they would take a walk, hand in hand, and air it all out. This was the beginning of proving to themselves open communication would be important, especially for David who would need to be reassured, at least for the time being, that no matter what they would face, Patrick loves him and will do whatever it takes to make sure if David does produce tears, they’re created by the happiest of circumstances. 

**I swore I saw you in a dream**

**All dressed in white and wide smile**

**You politely asked to take a walk with me**

**And I married you there underneath the trees**

**Can you feel the beat of my heartbeat beating through me?**

**I could make you happy**

**I could make you love me**

**I could disappear completely**

**I could be your love song**

**I could be long gone**

**I could be a ghost in your eardrum**

**When you sleep, will it be with me?**

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading this series! This is my first time to do my own series and this has been a blast to write these for you. If you have an idea for a great AU "I love you" moment, please leave it in the comments and I will do my best to work it in.  
Kudos and Comments are my jam! xoxo


End file.
